


Charred Memories

by FutureDreamer



Category: Johnny's Entertainment, Johnny's Jr., SixTONES (Band), Snow Man (Japan Band)
Genre: Adventure, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - High School, Angst, Crime, Drama, Friendship, Gen, M/M, Magic, Mystery, Romance, Selective Amnesia, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-06
Updated: 2019-12-15
Packaged: 2020-10-11 00:48:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 10,707
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20537411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FutureDreamer/pseuds/FutureDreamer
Summary: He felt the scorching flames penetrate through the skin of his chest; urging him to scream in agony for help only to find himself to be gagged as he was burning alive."And you don’t need to be rich like the prince over here to have a cell phone.""What do you know about Tokyo?""What are you?"Jesse only knew his name and the fact that he was in a prison. But, everything else was a haze to him. How did he get there? Why was he there? Where was "there" anyway? Who were these people questioning him? What was a cell phone? What or who was Tokyo? And what was that thing he saw; a nightmare or a flashback?





	1. Weirdo

**Author's Note:**

> I've had this idea for a while and wanted to publish it here to try something new, as I have never published here before now. I hope you all enjoy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just for your information and future reference, the italic text is the narrator's thoughts. I say narrator because it will change from member to member with each chapter.

He felt the scorching flames penetrate through the skin of his chest; urging him to scream in agony for help only to find himself to be gagged as he was burning alive.

Jesse jumped what seemed like ten feet off the mattress in horror. _“It was just a dream…” _He told himself, clutching his chest as he took deep breaths to calm his racing heart. _“Seemed so real though…” _Jesse thought as he let himself fall back down on the mattress in his prison cell, cringing in pain as the spot that got burned in the dream started hurting. He ignored it though.

He had learned how to read the natural time during his stay at the prison, figuring it was around 6am, which meant the guards would come to wake the inmates up soon. To wait, he thought about the events that brought him here to Earth. The ones he could actually remember.

But he didn’t want to wait. He had to get out of the prison to fulfill his mission of saving his planet. Though, why he wasn’t on his own planet even if he had to save it was the thought that haunted him since he had first arrived in the prison. He couldn’t remember why. It seemed like his mission and that nightmare were the only things he could remember aside from his name. The only other thing he could recollect was meeting a group of boys when he first arrived.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

It was disorienting, traveling between dimensions. So, when Jesse came out on the other end of the dimensional portal, he wasn’t surprised that he had fallen first thing. Two things he was surprised about though was the violent pounding of his head and other than his head, nothing seemed to be in pain even though he had fallen onto cement.

Or so he had originally thought. Turned out that Jesse had fallen on to someone, which he quickly realized after the person under him groans in pain and tries to move. Jesse slowly gets off the person, seeing that a boy probably a few years older than him was rubbing his head as he sat up. _“We probably bumped heads…” _Jesse thought, vaguely aware of his terrible headache. The boy on the ground just glared up at him. “S-sorry…” Jesse stuttered out, unsure if that was the proper thing to say. By the boy’s angry expression, he figured he had got it wrong. _“Stupid thing probably gave me the wrong language…”_ Jesse thought bitterly before looking around at his new surroundings.

He was in a dark room, probably a closet or a room used for storage. The big question was though, why were there five boys there? They were all distinguishable, Jesse noticed despite it being dark, especially by their hair. Well, one of the boys had a bigger build than the rest, so he was definitely distinguishable by that too. But the boy he had fallen on earlier had chocolate-brown hair. The boy beside him had pale pink hair. The one with the bigger build had light brown hair. Next was the boy with black hair. And lastly, the boy with blond hair.

“Did your parents not teach you manners?” The boy who he had fallen onto asks after getting up. “You should help a person up or at least offer it.” Jesse just blinked, both with confusion at the boy’s words and surprise that his translator did work, since he wouldn’t have understood the boy otherwise. The boy just sighed before proceeding to take something out of his pocket. In the next few seconds, Jesse found a bright light shining in his face, forcing him to close his eyes for a bit. But, the light was gone as soon as it had come.

“What is that?” Jesse asked, opening his eyes to see that the light was targeted to the floor now. It was coming out of a device that the boy was holding.

“A cell phone’s flashlight?” The guy answers in a questioning format. “Have you never seen one before?” Jesse just stayed quiet, noticing that everyone in the room was giving him a weird look now. _“Are these cell phone flashlight things common?” _He wondered, probably aloud because the blond guy answered him.

“They’re everywhere, yeah.”

“You don’t need to be rich like the prince to have a cell phone.” The light-brown haired boy adds. _“Prince?” _Jesse thinks to himself, looking at the blond guy. He didn't react to the comment_. "Maybe he is a prince..."_

“What is this place?” Jesse asks after that thought, looking around.

“Storage room.” The prince replies and Jesse sighs a bit. _“So, I was right... But, I have to get out of here... How do I do that without seeming suspicious to them?”_

“What are all of you doing here?” He asks, hoping this question would disperse the group.

“We could ask you the same thing.” The pink-haired boy asks. “You don’t look like hotel staff at all.”

“Hotel?” Jesse blinks with confusion and everyone gives him an even weirder look than when he asked what a cell phone flashlight was.

“What are you and where are you from?” The boy Jesse had fallen on asked. “If you were from a small rural town, sure… Maybe you don’t know what a cell phone is, but… A hotel? Seriously?” Jesse was just learning that it hadn’t been enough to learn what language to speak, there were so many things that he wasn’t used to.

“Hey!” A new voice came into the room, sounding angry. “You aren’t supposed to be in here.” The storage room light was now turned on, illuminating the room brilliantly and allowing everyone in the room to get a better view of each other without the so-called cell phone flashlight. Jesse had noticed that the boys had all stepped back from him after finding out he didn't know what a hotel was. The man who had just entered didn't know this though and stepped forward without hesitation.

“Sorry, sir.” The prince composed himself quickly, smiling a little at the man in an official kind of uniform. With that said, they all fled out of the room. Well, two of them fled the room. The pink-haired boy, the black-haired boy, and the boy with a bigger build were stopped before they could get out.

“Not you three…” The man standing at the door blocked their way. The three of them scowled at him as he just smiled at them in return. “It’s my lucky day. To catch Morimoto Shintaro, Matsumura Hokuto, and Tanaka Juri all in one round? I’ll be getting a hefty bonus for turning you in.”

“Sure…” The boy with black hair nods before continuing. “But you have a hostage here too. Would the reward be so great if your superiors knew that?”

“Hokuto.” The pink-haired boy scolds the boy, who Jesse now knew was named Hokuto. The man only laughs a bit.

“Nice try, but I know what you’re trying to do. Not so smart when put up against an adult, are you?” He asks, pointing to the furthest wall in the room. “You three stand over there.” When the three of them didn’t move, the man got a gun out of his belt and pointed it in their general direction. “Now.”

Jesse watched as the three boys held up their hands in front of their faces before doing exactly as the man had asked. Though it looked like they would be fine, Jesse learned that Shintaro had a big mouth in additon to his big build. The pink-haired boy had scolded him like he did to Hokuto earlier, which allowed Jesse to learn his name. _"So then, the pink-haired one is Juri..."_ Jesse concludes with process of elimination. When the three of them were close enough to the wall, Shintaro commented that the man could get arrested for pointing a gun at them despite them not doing anything. This clearly made the man angry as he grabbed the boy by the back of his shirt and shoved him against the wall.

Jesse couldn’t hear what the unknown man said, but it was enough to make Hokuto and Juri unable to do anything to save Shintaro. “So, I’m assuming I can leave now?” Jesse asks the man. Said man turns to look at him before scowling out an approval before turning back to face Shintaro.

Despite asking this, something within Jesse compelled him to help Shintaro out. So, he bent over, acting as if he was picking something up from the ground and then started to approach the man. “Sir…” Jesse started, remembering how the prince had addressed the man earlier. “I think this may be helpful to you.”

Clearly, that had worked as the man let go of Shintaro to look at Jesse. The latter just smiled, holding out his hand to the man, not being able to help the wide grin plastered on his lips as the man was overcome with horror when raging flames attacked him. “Run.” Jesse commanded Shintaro, Hokuto, and Juri; who gladly obeyed for the first time within the time that Jesse had met them.

“Thanks for that, weirdo.” Jesse heard one of them call out from the distance but not being able to distinguish who it was. _“Weirdo?” _He thinks to himself, forgetting about the man that was still left in the room.

Before he realized it though, the man had handcuffed him, making Jesse realize he probably let the wrong people get away. He found that he couldn’t escape either because for some reason, his powers didn’t work. If they had, he could have easily turned his hands to match the heating temperature of whatever metal the cuffs were made of and slipped away. That was how he was in this situation now. And without his powers, memories of why or how he got to Earth, or his friends, there was no way for Jesse to escape.


	2. Second Meeting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you read what I had up before today, then let me tell you this is a facelift to the story. Same story, but the plot works better.

To say Kouchi Yugo was surprised would be the understatement of the century. The whole week had been weird, starting off with the hotel visit his cousin had made him undergo, where he had met the drug dealer, the two thugs that he was dealing to, and the prince as Shintaro had called him. In addition to this, some strange boy had fallen on him from what seemed like nowhere in the dark room.

What was even weirder than the happenings inside the room was the fact that Yugo had no recollection of why he had strayed away from his cousin in the first place. One minute he was beside his cousin, helping him out with catering to a wedding reception, and the next minute he’s walking down a hallway._ "For a five-star hotel, they sure don't have the best lighting..._" Yugo thought, darting his eyes in the direction of every bulb that flickered, in hopes that the lights wouldn't go out.

It got stranger as he entered the storage room. He noticed the other four in the room, very much aware of their social statuses in society, which ultimately made him wish that he could be anywhere else but there. The lights were on when he entered, but as soon as he was fully inside the room, they flickered like the lights in the hall. The only difference was that these lights went out. They had tried to turn them on, but to no avail. And then the boy came out of nowhere, falling right into him.

He and Kyomoto Taiga, or the prince as Shintaro had called him earlier, had gotten away after a security officer had demanded that they get out of the storage room. Yugo didn’t even want to think about what happened to the other four, treating this day like a bad dream. But, things only got weirder throughout the week. It seemed that everywhere he went, the lights weren’t cooperating. When they were off, they came to life. And when they were on, they flickered and sometimes even fused.

The topping on the cake for the strange week was today though. The day started off as any other day. He woke up and got ready for the day at his family’s restaurant. Everything had been normal until noon, when the police came in and demanded to see the manager. Yugo's cousin came out to talk to them, since the managers, their fathers, weren’t on duty at the moment. Yugo didn’t pay much attention to this as he had to serve tables.

But then, an officer came to Yugo, asking him to show them his locker in the back. He was confused but complied with their request to avoid more trouble. Once the locker was opened, he stepped to the side to let the police search through it. He wasn’t worried, since he had nothing to hide, or so he thought. A minute later, the police pulled out a duffle bag. “It’s the bag I always bring with me to work. It only has a change of clothes, so I don’t have to go home in my uniform and mess it up on the way.” Yugo explains as the officer opens the bag up. Yugo watched as the officer took out the extra clothes and then proceeded to dump out the remaining contents of the bag.

Much to his horror, the bag contained what looked like several hundred dollars. “That’s not mine.” Yugo tried to explain. “I have no idea where that came from. I wouldn’t steal money.”

“That’s what they all say.” The officer frowns at him.

“Ask anyone! Ask my cousin, please!”

“Just come with us.” The officer clearly didn’t want to hear it, putting Yugo in handcuffs and escorting him out of the restaurant. Of course, he didn’t let them take him so easily, since he knew he was innocent. He tried to call out to his cousin, struggling to get out of the officer’s grasp on his shoulder. It seemed that his cousin didn’t hear him though. The officer called his partner into the restaurant and the two men overpowered him, resuming the task of escorting him out of the restaurant. And that’s when he saw it. Right before he was out the door, he saw his cousin smile with satisfaction. His mind and body must have gone into a state of shock because he didn’t remember anything after that.

The next thing he knew, he was being escorted into a juvenile prison. The thing that was even worse than that was the fact that the four from the hotel were there too. Taiga looked around nervously, which didn't surprise Yugo since he was pretty sure almost everyone there wanted a shot making the rich boy's life a living hell. Shintaro being cool and composed like the leader of a street gang he was; calmly waiting for his right hand to find a way out. Hokuto, his right hand, was clearly observing their surroundings. Yugo knew this even if he only saw the back of the other’s head. Hokuto noticed Yugo’s watchful eyes though, sending him a look as cold as ice would be, making Yugo look away hastily as he was more scared of Hokuto than whatever awaited him in prison. His gaze fell on to Juri, who looked as calm as Shintaro. “_Must be a little more relaxing in his shoes…” _Yugo thought, knowing that Juri’s family was known for being put behind bars but escaping quite quickly afterwards.

After the routine procedures of entering jail, he was escorted to his cell. “_This really isn’t my day…” _Yugo thinks as he comes face-to-face with the boy that had fallen on to him at the hotel. The boy looked at him with what looked like a mixture of curiosity and joy; not that Yugo could say he felt the same.

Once the guard left, Yugo sighed and took the remaining bed in the cell. Unfortunately for him, alongside to being ignorant about technology, his cellmate wasn’t very good at reading social cues and couldn’t see that Yugo wasn’t eager to talk to him. “It’s you again. I’m sorry about last time. I’m Jesse, by the way.” Yugo looked at him warily before responding, sensing that the other wouldn’t leave him alone if he didn't.

“Kouchi.”

“Well, I hope we can be friends then.”

“We can’t.” Yugo tells Jesse almost immediately after the other had finished speaking. “Look, normally I would be down for that. Everyone knows it’s better not to be alone in prison. But, you’re just…”

“A weirdo?” Jesse asks, sounding more curious than hurt to Yugo. He just blinked at his cellmate, not exactly wanting to use that word, but still manage to imply the same thing. So, he nodded as his answer. Jesse sighed, clearly not knowing what to do now. Yugo almost felt bad for rejecting Jesse’s offer, almost. The guy was too weird for his taste.

But Yugo soon found out that he had no choice but to take Jesse up on his offer. Unless he wanted to be alone and have a higher chance at getting picked on, he would have to go with Jesse. Going with Shintaro and his friends wasn’t an option since Yugo was aware of the fact that they already had friends where they were accepted. There was no way he was getting into that close-knit circle unless he was one of Shintaro’s guys or their friends from another gang. Jesse was the only choice.

“I thought you said you didn’t want to be friends with a weirdo?” Jesse asks as Yugo comes up to the table his cellmate was sitting at.

“Shut up.” Yugo huffs and sits down. “Not like I had a choice.” He noticed as Jesse’s gaze went to Shintaro and his friends before he looked back at Yugo questioningly.

“You couldn’t sit with them?” He asked and Yugo had to raise a brow at him, wondering if he was serious. “They are your friends, aren’t they?”

“Them!?” Yugo couldn’t help but laugh. “Are you kidding? Of course they’re not.”

“Then…” Jesse starts as Yugo takes a bite of his food, cringing at the taste. Though, he didn’t really expect the food at a juvenile prison to taste all that good to begin with, so he couldn’t complain. “What about the guy with blond hair?”

“Who…” Yugo started, not recalling what Jesse was talking about. But then it came back to him. “Kyomoto Taiga? No way he would ever be friends with someone like me, seriously! He’s like, in a completely different world!” There was silence for a while before Jesse decided to talk.

“No, I’m pretty sure he’s from the same world as you.” Yugo had to stop himself from faceplanting on the disgusting food at Jesse’s words.

“Seriously, you don’t even know that?” He asks his cellmate, but finds himself explaining it anyway. “It’s just a saying. It basically means that he has a different social status and life compared to me, so he wouldn’t be friends with me.” To Yugo’s surprise though, Jesse only blinked at him with confusion. He sighed, bringing a hand up to his face with exasperation. “_This guy is just something else…” _He thinks to himself. “What do you know about Tokyo?”

“Tokyo?” Jesse repeats.

“The place we’re in right now?” Jesse blinks again with confusion and Yugo brings the hand up to his face in exasperation again before explaining everything Jesse needed to know about Tokyo. Yousef told Jesse about the social standings that him and the other four were in, about The Ballistik Wolves, about Shintaro and Hokuto's standing within the street gang; the leader and second-in-command respectively, about Tanaka Juri being the gang’s dealer. And of course, about how other things worked in the city.

It looked like for the most part, Jesse understood what Yugo was saying. _“Maybe he’s not so different after all…” _But that thought was interrupted as three boys sat down around them. The three that Yugo had warned Jesse about just a second ago. Jesse looked to him for help, but Yugo didn’t exactly have experience dealing with criminals, thus being just as useless and afraid as Jesse was. “Relax, you two…” Shintaro sighs, probably seeing how scared they were. “We just wanted to thank him, for saving us from the police a week ago.” Yugo gave him a weird look, which made the gang leader blink at him with confusion. “What, just ‘cause we’re criminals, you think we don’t have manners?”

“I…” Yugo started, not knowing how to answer that without it coming across as negative. So, he went with the ambiguous answer. “I never said that.” The three of them gave him different degrees of a scowl but didn’t say anything; turning to Jesse instead.

“Anyway, thank you.” Shintaro continues. “I don’t like to be indebted to anyone, so… We’ll return the favour, just once.”

“Does that include Kouchi too?” Jesse asks, surprising everyone.

“No, just you.” Hokuto answers the question. “You’re the one who saved us, not him. So, only you get the repayment.” Jesse nods a bit and Yugo is surprised when the three of them stay. Hokuto apparently notices his confusion and proceeds to answer. “You two are stuck with us from now on. You see, we wanna get this debt off quickly and prison is a great place to return the favour. But, that means we would have to be with you as much as possible too.” It made sense, as far as Yugo could tell anyway, since he never had the experience of being a prisoner before this.

So, Yugo and Jesse just pretended as if the other three weren’t with them; as per their instructions. As they were supposed to ignore them, Yugo decided to bring the conversation back to what they were talking about before the trio had joined them. And soon, what Yugo had thought about Jesse understanding his surroundings had vanished when he asked his cellmate where he was from, since he was clearly a foreigner to Japan. They were scared of Jesse a week ago because they couldn't see it in the darkness and were limited on time when the lights were turned on. For all they knew, Jesse didn't know what a cell phone or a hotel was because he grew up in a poor country. That made sense in Yugo's mind. “What do you mean?” Jesse asks him, looking genuinely surprised and confused. “What's Japan? Didn't you say we were in Tokyo? And... A foreigner?"

“We are..." Yugo nods at Jesse. "But... Tokyo is a portion of land which is in a bigger piece of land, which is the country called Japan. And clearly you're a foreigner since you don't know anything about the customs. You even look like a foreigner. So yeah, where are you from?" Jesse’s surprise and struggle to answer told Yugo everything. Well, as much as one would possibly want to know about an extraterrestrial being. The trio had clearly noticed too, apparently listening in on their conversation. Yugo’s mind was scattered, not being able to process how someone didn't know where they were from. But then he thought of some questions he could ask, knowing he shouldn't jump to that conclusion so quickly despite wanting it to actually be true. There were a number of reasons why. Hokuto beat him to the questioning though.

"What's your name?"

“Jesse.”

“Family name?” Hokuto blinks at Jesse curiously.

“Family name?” Jesse asks, clearly confused.

“Yeah. Or… Last name?” Yugo tries this time, adding on to Hokuto’s question. But Jesse still looked lost, making everyone either raise a brow at him questioningly or give him an odd look. “Were you orphaned when you were young? Is that why you have no idea?”

“Depends…” Jesse starts. “What’s an orphan?”

“Seriously?” Yugo had to try hard not to bury his face in his hand with exasperation. Hokuto seemed to be more patient though, answering Jesse’s question calmly.

“Someone whose parents either die or leave them by themselves when that person is a child and can’t fend for themselves.”

“No.” Jesse shakes his head. “I have parents. Well… Had… They died about a month ago.” Yugo and the trio just give him pitiful looks and Yugo apologizes for all of them. “You didn’t know.” Jesse waves it off.

“Wait…” Yugo frowns before asking the next question. "Do you know your age?"

"Fifteen." Jesse answers.

"Okay, so it's not necessarily an identity crisis..." Hokuto reasons, appearing interested in the mystery surrounding Jesse's past. "Do you have a medical condition that doesn't let you remember anything? Like... Amnesia or even short-term memory?" Jesse could only blink at Hokuto and the boy sighed before getting up. "Okay... I'll be right back."

"Where are you going?" Shintaro asks him.

"To see if I can get him an appointment with the prison's practitioner."

Despite his word, Hokuto disappeared the rest of the day. Yugo and Jesse only saw him again before going back to their cell. "You have an appointment with the practitioner tomorrow." Jesse just looked at him with confusion so Hokuto explained. "To see if you have something wrong with you. If you do, then they'll take you to the hospital to further examine you."

"You couldn't have said that nicely though?" Yugo asks and Hokuto just shrugs.

"I don't owe him kindness, only protection." And with that, Hokuto was gone.


	3. Suspicion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know if anyone's figured it out yet, but... I'm using descriptions of how SixTONES looked from the end of 2018 to the beginning of 2019, around that timeframe. But, their ages are the ages of the Bakaleya days for the story's sake

Matsumura Hokuto was no idiot; far from it actually. He had warned Shintaro not to take a job from Shimekake Ryuya. Everyone in town knew he double-crossed anyone he worked with; Shintaro did too. So, Hokuto figured it was for the money the guy was offering for his services; stealing back an artifact that was stolen from him.

There were two reasons he had gone with Shintaro. One, he was worried. Two, he had been Shintaro’s friend since childhood so of course he wouldn’t let his friend go alone if he knew that said friend would get in trouble.

“Which room did he say it was?” Hokuto asks Shintaro when they arrive at the hotel, frowning at his inability to remember. But it seemed as if his friend wasn’t listening to him. “Shin? Are you listening?” Clearly not, as he was starting to walk in the opposite direction of the elevators. Hokuto calls out to him repeatedly, but to no avail. So, he decides to just follow Shintaro where ever he went.

To Hokuto's surprise, Shintaro led him to a storage room. Even more surprising was the fact that Tanaka Juri and Kyomoto Taiga were in the room when they entered. “What are you doing here?” Hokuto asks the pink-haired boy.

“I could ask you the same thing.” Juri answers, crossing his arms over his chest. Though they were friends, Juri could really be sassy sometimes. _“Guess this is one of those times…” _Hokuto internally sighs at this thought.

“I was following Shin. He kind of led me here as if he was being controlled.”

“Him too?” Taiga asked. Hokuto ignored her, looking to Juri for an explanation regarding what Taiga had said.

“You see, we were talking and… Apparently we both felt as if we were drawn here by something.”

“You sound absolutely crazy, dude." Hokuto shakes his head. “That stuff doesn’t happen in the real world. Have you been watching too many fantasy movies with your brothers lately?”

“I haven’t.” Juri assures him. “Actually, we haven’t had a brothers movie night in a while because we’ve all been so busy and can’t seem to coordinate our schedules so we’re all home at the same time.”

“Then you’re crazy.” Hokuto reasons with Juri. “Both of you.”

“Hey…” Taiga starts. “Shintaro felt it too, you know? So, is he crazy too or is it just the two of us?” Hokuto raises a brow at him for using Shintaro's given name but before he can ask, an unknown boy enters the room. The boy had chocolate-brown hair and a well-defined jawline with big chocolate-brown eyes. As soon as he entered, the lights began to flicker. “Who are you?”

“And what are you doing here?” Hokuto asks. By now, he was curious if this boy had also found himself being drawn here like the others. What intrigued him more though was the fact that this boy had no status like the rest of them who were either nobility or criminals. Since this was a weird situation, Hokuto couldn’t help but wonder what the connection between the five of them were. The connection between Shintaro, Juri, and himself were obvious but the other two didn’t add up in his head.

“I, um…” The boy stuttered, clearly nervous. Hokuto couldn’t blame him either, it must have been overwhelming to be in a room full of criminals and a noble. “I don’t actually know what I’m doing here. A second ago I was helping my cousin out with a wedding and now I’m here.” Hokuto sighs at the familiar story that he had already heard from Juri and Taiga. But there was still no connection he could see.

Suddenly though, the lights went out. It’s not that everyone was scared of the circumstance, but it was shocking; the lights seemed fine a second ago before the unknown guy came into the room. Before Hokuto could ask the question that was bothering him, about the boy’s name, there was a flash of blinding light enveloping the room. Hokuto had thought that he saw the flames for the second that he was able to see the light, but he had to quickly cover his eyes, so he couldn’t be positive.

And within seconds, the blinding light was gone, leaving the room pitch black again. The unknown boy was on the ground; a new boy with red hair on top of him. _“Where did he come from?” _Hokuto wondered. But, there was no time to ask as the boy with the chocolate-brown hair was angry and things just kept going south from there.

It wasn’t any better after they had escaped the police officer. Shimekake Ryuya wasn’t happy with them since they had failed their task. Shintaro had tried but failed to get back on the guy’s good side; only to avoid being indebted to him. So, it was no surprise when a week later, he called them up for another task. “This time, I want you to deliver this for me.” He held up a suitcase, making Hokuto and Shintaro blink at it curiously.

“What is it?” Shintaro asks.

“That is none of your business.” Ryuya answers. “You’re only to deliver it to this address. The recipient has the key for it.” With that said, he gave Shintaro a paper with an address written down.

“You know it’s a set up, right?” Hokuto asks Shintaro as they drive to the location. The other just shrugs a bit.

“It’ll repay the debt. Besides, we knew he double-crosses people all the time. So, it would be even more worrisome if we didn’t see it coming.”

“I guess.” Hokuto nods in agreement, not really wanting to get into an argument over something so trivial. Shintaro would say that they had nothing to lose anyway, since gangs were always fighting for the top position and the government never cared to begin with. He would say that as long as they didn’t get killed, it would be fine. Hokuto knew better than to believe that Shintaro actually thought that way, but he never said anything about it.

So, ending up in prison because the police were waiting for them at the address seemed appropriate to Hokuto. What wasn’t appropriate were the people led into the building alongside Shintaro and himself. Juri and the unknown boy from the hotel. Hokuto would have asked, but he knew he had a lot of time to do so once they were settled in. And that’s when he noticed the unknown boy’s stare in his direction, so he looked back at him with a glare; very aware of what ordinary civilians thought of him.

He was surprised though, when Shintaro came up to him once it was time to eat and told him what he was thinking. “We should go sit with them.” Hokuto raises a brow at his childhood friend, looking over to where he’s pointing and frowning. There, was the unknown guy sitting with the guy he had called a freak as they escaped from the police at the hotel.

“Why?” Hokuto asks.

“You know I don’t like to be indebted.” Without anything else to say, Shintaro goes over to their table. Hayden groans as he watches Juri join Shintaro. _“Damn lovesick fool…” _Hokuto thinks to himself as he takes a seat beside Shintaro, to the surprise of the two that were originally there.

Hokuto didn’t like this situation though. Something was off about these two, especially the boy with the red hair. And his suspicion was confirmed when Jesse, the boy with red hair, was confused as to what a last name was.

One thing led to another and Hokuto found himself making the arrangements for Jesse to meet with the practitioner. He normally wouldn't, as Shintaro had more power in rank than he did, but he was the one who suggested it, so he took the initiative. It was also because of their ranks that Hokuto was able to say that Shintaro had given him the order and no one thought twice about it. The only thing to do now was to wait for two weeks.

Nothing particularly exciting happened within these two weeks. Not even an attack against Jesse and Kouchi. But, the trio soon found out that the reasoning behind that was because the two were hanging out with them; and of course no one wanted to mess with them and their associates and/or friends.

Everyone was surprised though, when before the two weeks of waiting were up, Jesse asked them a question. It was a simple question, which would sound out of place to anyone outside of the quintet. "Is it that weird to not have a family name?"

"Yes." Everyone answers almost immediately.

"It's fine if you don't know it, there are circumstances for that..." Kouchi starts. "But, to not know what it is and not have one? That's a bit odd."

"No kidding. Plus, there's also the fact of you not knowing what a cell phone or hotel are. Those are pretty common things anywhere you go. Especially a cell phone." Juri adds in.

"Right, um..." Jesse starts. "I have an explanation for all of that, but... I'm not sure you'll believe me." Everyone gazes at Jesse curiously after this is said. Hokuto's mind filtering through the conclusions he came up with for his suspicions about the boy. But, he soon found out that none of them matched what Jesse told them.


	4. The Truth(?)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's a bit difficult to transition the story over from the original, so yeah. That's why it took a bit longer this time. But, I will update every week. Or, I'll at least try to.

Tanaka Juri wouldn’t say that he was particularly thrilled about being in prison, being that it was his first time despite his family’s reputation of repeatedly going to prison. But at least he had friends already within the confines of the building. He was also starting to make some new friends, if Yugo and Jesse could be called as such. Though, Juri thought that they could. He didn’t know why exactly, but something about them just made it easy to interact with them. And by Shintaro’s behaviour, he thought the same thing.

It was true that Shintaro didn’t like to be indebted to anyone, like he had said as his reasoning to Hokuto when suggesting sitting with Jesse and Yugo. But both he and Hokuto knew that Shintaro wouldn’t stick with someone unless he liked them or saw some sort of potential in them. That was how Juri first became friends with the gangster duo after all.

It happened a couple years ago, when Juri was declared old enough to join the family business. So, his older brother gave him some of the merchandise and instructed him where to set up. “Calm down, will you, Koki?” Juri frowns at his brother’s fussing. “You’re acting as if it’s my first day to do this.”

“It’s your first day alone.” Koki reminds him.

“And you’ve taught me well, bro.” Juri assures him. “I can do this.” Whether Koki wanted him to be part of the family business or not didn’t matter; it wasn’t his decision to begin with. But, Juri felt as if he owed Koki a peace of mind because they were really close and Koki had cared for and/or spoiled him all his life. And though in Juri’s opinion Koki had taught him about the business the best he could, he knew that Koki was still worried about him doing it for the first time.

Koki didn’t argue against him though, which he was happy about. Unfortunately, his first time alone didn’t go well. More specifically, his last delivery didn’t go well. The problem was that he was supposed to deliver to The Ballistik Wolves. They were one of the biggest and most powerful gangs in Tokyo, which made everyone either fear or loathe them; Juri was the former. He had gone with Koki when he had made his rounds, but that was different. Koki had been delivering to the gang for a long time now, so they were fond of him even if they would never admit it and had a not-so-convenient way of showing it. He didn’t even know why Koki gave him the delivery meant for the gang, as he was almost one hundred percent certain that they would eat him alive if they were real wolves.

Still, Juri forced himself to go, knowing that there would be more than lost profit if he skipped out on The Wolves.

Arriving at the subway station, Juri looks around the practically empty platform for his client. The Wolves and Koki had established a code so Koki would recognize any member of the gang. The gang member always wore a black hoodie or jacket with fur on the hood, which was pulled up so it was covering their eyes and nose; to avoid being recognized. They were usually waiting near the entrance, appearing to everyone else as someone who was cold while waiting for their friends or a date.

He saw the guy after a while of looking and approached him. The guy eyed him up and down, frowning a little bit. “Can I help you?”

“I’m here to deliver these to you.” Juri answered, bringing out the merchandise. The other just gave him a weird look.

“You’re not our regular guy.”

“Yeah, my brother said I could deliver to The Wolves this one time…” Juri tried to explain, regretting that decision once he saw the guy’s wicked smile.

“Your brother never told you about the initiation to become one of our dealers, did he?” Juri could just blink at the guy with confusion. _“Koki would have mentioned an initiation…” _He thought to himself, the feeling of something being wrong overtaking his body. The guy grabbed Juri by the arm and dragged him to the part of the platform that was dimly lit before shoving him to the ground. “In short, the initiation is you being beaten to see how tough you are.” With that said, he landed a hard kick in Juri’s stomach, making him cough out. _“Yeah, Koki would have mentioned this…” _Juri thought as the guy kicked him some more, the kicks ranging from head to foot.

Juri was coughing out blood after several hard kicks, as his body wasn’t used to this. His body had given out and he couldn’t feel anything anymore, but he knew the guy wasn’t done with him yet. Just as his vision was giving out too though, someone had pushed the guy away from him. He wanted to see who was brave enough to fight off a member of The Ballistik Wolves, so he willed his vision not to give out on him yet.

He saw a muscled boy. By how the guy who beat him up shivered, Juri figured the boy was higher in rank within The Ballistik Wolves. Surprisingly though, he didn’t do anything after the initial shove; letting the guy go before coming over to him. “Are you okay?” He asks and Juri realizes that despite his build and fierceness, the boy was actually younger than him. However, before Juri could respond to the question, his vision gave out on him; enveloping his world in darkness.

When he woke up, he noticed that he wasn’t in the station anymore. Instinctively, he looked around before sitting up. Bad idea; he fell on to his back almost immediately, groaning loudly as pain shot throughout his entire body. Then, there was the sound of a door opening and someone’s voice rang in his ears. “You shouldn’t try to sit up yet. You went through a lot.” Juri glanced over in the direction the voice was coming from without actually moving his head; the boy he saw before blacking out sat beside the bed, looking back at him.

“Where am I?”

“Ballistik Wolves’ hideout.” He answers.

“And you are?” Juri asks curiously.

“Right, this is your first time without Koki…” The boy mumbles, probably meant for himself, but he was sitting right beside the bed which allowed Juri to hear the boy better than he normally would. “I’m Shintaro, Morimoto Shintaro.” Juri blinked a few times as the name registered in his brain. _“The leader of the Ballistik Wolves…” _Juri mentally screams at himself. Everyone knows his name but only a few have the honour of meeting him. Koki was one of those few and now, so was he.

The thing that threw Juri off was the fact that Shintaro had helped him. _“Why?” _He wondered. It’s not that he wanted to assume that every gang leader was rough with people, but Juri doubted that being one of the biggest gangs in the city was easy. So, he expected the leader to be scary, even after someone were to talk to him. But, he turned out to be a really kind person. “Why?” Jiro finally voiced out what he was thinking. Shintaro just blinked at him curiously.

“Why what?”

“Why did you help me out?”

“Look…” Shintaro starts with a sigh. “Just because I’m the leader of a gang doesn’t mean I’m an indecent human being. I have my morals like everyone else in the world. I don’t like to hurt others unless they’ve hurt me first and I don’t owe them anything. You haven’t done anything to me, so your experience was unfortunate.” Juri nods a bit in agreement as the other proceeds to check his body for bruising, explaining that they didn’t have access to proper medication and basic treatment was all they could do for Juri. Shintaro was surprised to see that despite what he had gone through, Juri’s body seemed to be in perfect condition, as if he didn’t just get kicked a number of times. Juri was surprised too. _“That can’t be normal…”_

Then, Shintaro suggested for Juri to learn how to fight, with his training of course. Initially, Juri said no. But Shintaro reminded him of what had happened to get him here and Juri sighed with defeat, agreeing to the other’s offer.

That’s how he got closer to the leader and the second-in-command. The training sessions were twice a week and sometimes Hokuto would join them. And with time, Juri had developed a crush on the leader of The Ballistik Wolves. Shintaro was oblivious to it, but of course Hokuto had found him out; agreeing to keep Juri’s secret with the exchange of Juri giving him the drugs for free. Of course Juri was hesitant, but he agreed.

He knew he couldn’t go home without Hokuto’s payment though, so he found another source for that profit; a high school boy. His classmate.

One day, Juri had to deliver to his classmate at a hotel where a wedding was taking place since the boy was one of the guests attending. Juri agreed, telling the boy to meet him outside the hotel, around the back where no one would see their transaction.

He had arrived early and decided to just hang out outside. But in the back of his head, something was nagging him to go inside. As he entered and walked to one of the corridors, he passed by a server, probably for the wedding that was going on. What was strange though was all of the drinks toppling over and spilling on the carpeted floor despite Jiro being sure that the server hadn’t done anything for that outcome to happen. Thinking about it though, Jiro realizes that it’s not the first time he’s seen something strange like this. For a few days he’s been seeing liquids do weird stuff; the water fountain in public places suddenly spraying the person trying to drink from it, soda bursting out of the can even if the person hadn’t shaken it, and the water in the kettle heating up even though the kettle wasn’t plugged in. Among other things. Koki even joked that Juri could be the reason for these things, since he was always there when they happened. _“He was just joking, it’s only coincidence that you’re always there…” _Juri thought to himself as he walked into a room which he found to be a storage room.

To say that the events of the storage room were weird and dangerous would be an understatement. But Juri met his classmate-turned-client and that’s all that really mattered in the end.

A week after those events though, Juri had gotten arrested. Turns out that someone his classmate knew had called the police on him. Though, he can’t say he was complaining because he found out that Shintaro and Hokuto were in the same boat.

Now they sat with the two other boys from the hotel, talking about how much of a freak, as Juri had called him back then, truly was. They had also finally learned their names, Kouchi and Jesse. And then it happened; Jesse was proven to indeed be a freak when he admitted he didn’t know what a family name was nor did he have one. The lack of reasoning behind why he didn’t have one was also concerning. “I have an explanation for all of that, but... I'm not sure you'll believe me.” Jesse tells everyone.

“I think we’ll believe anything now that we’ve heard you don’t know what a cell phone and hotel are and don’t have a last name.” Shintaro reasons.

“Without a valid reason as to why you don’t have one.” Hokuto adds on to Shintaro’s point.

“Fine…” Jesse nods. “Well… I’m not from your world…” He looks to Kouchi after saying this. “And, I don’t mean it like how you said it when you said you and Kyomoto Taiga weren’t in the same world. I mean…. I actually don’t come from planet Earth.” Shintaro was wrong, what Jesse had just said wasn’t something any of them were expecting.

“You’re kidding, right?” Hokuto asks, being the most intelligent within the group. Well, Juri didn’t know about Kouchi, but between the three of them, Hokuto was the most intelligent. “There’s no way that’s even possible.”

“Maybe not for you, but… I’m here.” Jesse argues back. “Besides… How do you explain me not knowing any of the stuff you talk about?”

“He’s got a point.” Juri nods in agreement.

“No, he doesn’t…” Hokuto shakes his head. “For all we know, he could be totally disconnected from the world and not want to share his last name.”

“Okay…” Jesse starts. “Then what about back when we first met? Remember how I saved you three? How did I do it, do you know?”

“You had firearms on you or something.” Hokuto shrugs a bit. Jesse blinks at him with confusion and Hokuto sighs, explaining what firearms were. To this though, Jesse shakes his head. “Fine…” Hokuto sighs. “Lets say that I believe you… Where are you from and how did you do that?”

“As I was saying…” Jesse starts. “I’m not from Earth. The planet I’m from isn’t in your galaxy.”

“There are other galaxies other than the Milky Way, you know?” Hokuto asks and Jesse just blinks at him dumbfounded. Juri guessed that Jesse was wondering what the Milky Way was; it looked like the other two thought the same. Hokuto just shakes his head, telling Jesse to continue.

“Hokuto… You do realize that what you're saying is no different than what he's saying, right?" Shintaro asks, not having to explain that life on other planets was still a theory, so the thought of life in other galaxies was even more out there. Well, maybe to Jesse, but Shintaro seem too concerned about the red-haired boy.

“Hardly” Hokuto retorts. “I was just saying there are more galaxies than the one we’re in now.”

“Point taken.” Jesse nods. “Even so, I’m not from your universe.” No one said anything, so Jesse just continued. “I’m from a planet called Eotopia, which is said as your “utopia” and this planet isn’t in your universe.”

“Please tell us more.” Hokuto really looked like he didn’t believe a word Jesse was saying, but he already said he would listen, so he did. Jesse turned out to be bad at reading social cues anyway, so he kept going.

“You see, unlike Earth, Eotopia has magic.” Jesse glances to Kouchi before continuing. “And like you have social classes; we have magical classes. Not everyone has the same amount of magical power. My family is one of the ones who has the most.”

"Wait..." Hokuto stops Jesse. "Can we listen to him after he goes to the practitioner? It's kinda hard to take him seriously if we don't know for sure if he's just lying or if he has some mental illness." And of course, everyone had to agree that it would be better to wait.


	5. The Plan

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The little paragraph before going into the day of the appointment was just a summary of how the rest of their two weeks was, in case you read that and get confused. Anyway, I won't be updating again until after the new year so... Happy holidays, everyone!

Morimoto Shintaro wouldn’t consider himself as a cruel person despite his past and place in society. He did help Juri learn how to fight. And he was the nicest gang leader, according to Juri anyway. But he figured the dealer liked him as a person so of course he wouldn’t say anything negative.

It was different in a juvenile prison though. Probably a bit easier than regular prison, but still not as light as the outside world. Outside, he could disappear somewhere if he didn’t want to deal with anything, letting Hokuto take care of it.

Of course, letting Hokuto take care of it wasn’t a regular thing. But Hokuto was really good at it when he got the opportunity and Shintaro knew it. The rest of The Wolves knew it too. A couple years ago when the two of them had become new members of The Ballistik Wolves, everyone had given them a hard time because of their young age and their new member statuses. They quickly backed off though, after Hokuto had beat them all up without laying a finger on them. The reason why he wasn’t the leader was because he didn’t want the responsibility. So, the job went to Shintaro who the rest of the members feared equally due to his freaky ability to know what each member was thinking whenever he wanted to. Coupled with his martial arts lessons from childhood, Shintaro was a good candidate for leader.

This time was different though; Shintaro didn't give Hokuto an errand, Hokuto had volunteered to get Jesse an appointment with the prison's practitioner himself. He Shintaro didn't argue, but requested that Hokuto keep him updated.

By the time he had gotten the update from Hokuto though, it was time to go to sleep. Lucky for him that he was sharing a cell with Juri. “Did he do it?” He asks Shintaro as he enters the cell, knowing full well that Shintaro had gotten updated by Hokuto. Shintaro nods, but he was frowning.

“He did but it will take two weeks for the actual appointment to happen. Not to mention all the excuses he had to make about me giving him this task to actually be get the info and the appointment.” With that said, Shintaro gets into bed.

“We all know he’s crazy, right?” Juri asks from his own bed. “So, why are we even testing it?”

“Simple.” Shintaro answers, turning in his bed so he can look at Juri’s profile. It was dark, but he could still make out the faint outline of his cellmate on the other bed. “If he does indeed turn out to not be crazy, then at least things will become a little more interesting around here.”

“Interesting, meaning?”

“If he’s truly from another dimension, he’ll have some great stories. Don’t you think so?”

“I guess…” There was some yelling about how they should go to sleep and Shintaro sighs, too tired to yell back at the person.

“We’ll talk tomorrow. Goodnight.”

“Night.”

The next day started off with an obnoxious guard yelling at the inmates to wake up, much to Juri's annoyance as Shintaro had found out. "You'll get used to it, don't worry." Juri just scowls at him, telling him that he really wouldn't because he wasn't a morning person and the fact that they were woken up with yelling wasn't helping that fact. _"That's why he doesn't ever deliver in the morning..." _Even when it was only convenient in the morning, Juri never agreed to it. And now Shintaro knew why.

Other than that incident, nothing interesting happened. Until Kouchi started talking during their free time outside after breakfast. “I have a question.” Shintaro, Hokuto, and Juri look at him curiously. “Does that mean you’ll be hanging out with us even after you’ve repaid your debt to Jesse if it happens before the appointment?”

“Of course not.” Shintaro shakes his head. “If the debt is repaid before the appointment, we’ll take our leave. I mean, we don’t actually care. There are a lot of guys here who have various conditions, so it’s not like Jesse’s anything special, right?”

“Harsh.” Kouchi remarks.

“Weren’t you the one who initially didn’t want to be friends with me either?” Jesse questions innocently to Kouchi, which makes Shintaro and his friends snicker a bit at Kouchi’s surprised look.

“Looks like I’m not the only harsh one here.” Shintaro points out.

Juri questioned his motives when the two were in their cell right before the lights went out though. “You genuinely want to hang out with them, don’t you?”

“What makes you think that?”

“You hesitated a bit before answering Kouchi’s question.”

“I think you should stay out of someone else’s business. Besides that, his appointment is tomorrow, so it doesn't even matter.” With that said, Shintaro closes his eyes to try and get sleep. “Goodnight.”

Other than Jesse's story of the supposed other dimension and planet that he comes from, the two weeks waiting for the appointment had been uneventful. Jesse and Kouchi weren’t even targeted. Which Shintaro found out by Hokuto’s intel was due to the fact that they hung around the trio. No one wanted to get involved with them if Shintaro, Hokuto, and Juri were there to protect them. At the time, Shintaro sighed, internally beating himself up for not realizing that there was a pretty high probability of that happening.

And now, it was the day of the appointment. It was during their outdoor break, so the group watched as Jesse went for it. He only came back once the break was over with and they had to do their chores for the day. “How was it?” Shintaro asks when Jesse joins him and Kouchi in the kitchen to make lunch for all the inmates. Jesse just scowled at him in return.

“I’m not “insane” as you call it, but… I am definitely angry. That test was super long.” Kouchi and Shintaro just give each other confused looks in response to Jesse’s words.

“You’re not insane?” Kouchi repeats Jesse’s words as a question.

“Just lacking some common knowledge, but… The woman didn’t count that as being insane.” Jesse shrugs a bit, washing his hands and getting to work.

“That means…” Shintaro starts. “What you said was true.

“Of course it was true.” Jesse nods. “I told you that too, but no one believed me.”

“He does have a point.” Kouchi nods in agreement. “We couldn’t accept something different.”

“It’s not that we couldn’t accept something different…” Shintaro shakes his head. “It was something fictional rather than something different.”

“Fictional?” Jesse blinks at Kouchi and Shintaro shakes his head.

“Nevermind that for now. Could you get me a bowl from one of the bottom cupboards, Jesse?” Jesse nods and proceeds to get the bowl. He couldn’t find it for a bit though and that’s when everything really started.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got it.” Kouchi tells Jesse, going for the cupboard with the particular bowl that Shintaro was asking for. Jesse was heading for the same cupboard though, and the two ended up bumping heads. “We have to stop doing that.” Kouchi complains, rubbing his head a bit before blinking up at Jesse who stared back at him. The look Jesse was giving Kouchi was unreadable, but Shintaro could tell Jesse was shocked beyond words at that moment.

“Jesse?” Shintaro blinks, kneeling down in front of him and waving a hand in front of his face. “Are you okay?” Jesse doesn’t say anything but proceeds to get what looks like gems out of his pocket. _“Where did he get those from? And, how did the guards not take them from him?” _Shintaro wondered, knowing he couldn’t have gotten them from the guy who procures everything for the inmates, not in two weeks if he considers what the gems were worth. What’s even more weird is that only two out of the five gems started glowing faintly. The gems that were yellow and green in colour started glowing a bit brighter than the others while the red gem wasn't glowing at all.

“Jesse, what’s going on?” Kouchi asks what Shintaro can’t. “And, where did you get those? Actually, how did you get those?”

“I’ll explain everything at lunch.” Jesse smiles at Kouchi. “Well, everything I can explain.” And that sentence alone just told Shintaro that Jesse didn’t remember everything he needed to. But, he wasn’t complaining, since he didn’t know if those missing memories were going to be important at the moment or not.

So, the subject was dropped, and everyone returned to preparing food. When lunch came around, the three of them served out the food before going to the table Hokuto and Juri sat at. “So…” Shintaro starts, lowering his voice a little so only the five of them could hear what he said next. “What’s with the gems?”

“Gems?” Hokuto and Juri question him simultaneously.

“Well…” Jesse starts. “Remember how I said there were magical classes in Eotopia and that my family was one of the ones with the most magical power?” Juri and Hokuto glance at Shintaro and Kouchi, but the two just nodded, silently telling them to listen. “Well, there are five other families who have great magical power too. The gems you two saw are what keep the six most powerful families' powers at bay, otherwise we would have little to no control on them, depending on how strong they are.”

“I’m sorry.” Hokuto stops Jesse. “Why are you telling us this?”

“More importantly…” Shintaro waves Hokuto off, giving him a look that tells him he’ll explain later. “Why were the gems glowing? Well… most of them anyway.” Jesse just smiled at him before answering.

“When Kouchi and I bumped heads, I remembered. I used them to find my friends. Since we’re one of the offspring of each one of the most magical families in Eotopia. They glow when their owners are close.” The four of them just gave Jesse blank looks. Shintaro didn’t know how the others felt, but he was completely dumbfounded. It wasn’t because he didn’t understand what Jesse had said, who wouldn’t understand that? But the coincidence was too astonishing to comprehend. From the very moment Jesse came to Earth, he had found who he had been searching for.

“Then…” Shintaro starts. “How do you know which gem belongs to who?”

“By the colours.” Jesse answers almost immediately, holding up the green stone. “This one belongs to the person who has earth-based powers.” He then proceeded to do the same with every other gem, holding up the one he was talking about. “The yellow belongs to the person who has light-based powers, the blue is for water/liquid-based powers, the black is for dark-based powers, the pink is for time/space-based powers, and the red is for fire/heat-based powers.” Jesse then proceeded to saying how since the green and yellow gems glowed brighter than the rest when Shintaro and Kouchi were with him, they were two of the owners. Shintaro had already figured that out though, not that he would say it.

“Wait, so…” Kouchi starts. “Why didn't the red one glow?"

“That one is to find the actual gem.” Jesse explains. “You see, these are only fragments of the gems themselves. The gems themselves control our powers; I don’t know how much fragments will control though. And, I’m the fire user within my group of friends.” Shintaro let out a soft sigh before suggesting.

“Why don’t you try taking them out around Juri and Hokuto?” The two in question just look at Shintaro as Jesse blinks at him, equally dumbfounded as Shintaro’s friends are. “I think… Maybe, we’re your missing friends. You just didn’t know it because you forgot everything when you arrived here.” Jesse glances at Juri and Hokuto.

“Will you guys try?” The dealer and second-in-command exchange an unreadable look before agreeing. Jesse pulled out the blue, black, and pink gems since he already knew neither of them could be the owners of the other three. And as Sebastian has hypothesized, all three gems glowed faintly, but two of them were glowing a bit brighter than the third one. Jesse curled his hand into a fist so no one else would see before storing the gems into his pocket. Even if anyone had seen, it was too quick to really confirm anything and could be waved off as a trick of the eye.

Before anyone could say anything though, there was commotion about the lights that had just been seen; everyone was trying to figure out if they were imagined or not and the prison cafeteria got chaotic to the point they weren’t able to discuss it further.

The rest of the day wasn’t great to talk about it either, so Juri decided to confirm it with Shintaro before anyone else could, in their cell. Before he could though, he noticed the younger was deep in thought. “What are you thinking about?”

“Escaping.” Shintaro answered almost immediately. Juri just raised a brow at him, silently questioning what he meant. “Think about it. If we’re the friends Jesse has been searching for and if he still has to find the gems themselves, then he needs to escape. And we need to escape with him.”

“Yeah.” Juri nods in agreement, continuing hesitantly. “But something tells me you have an ulterior motive.” Shintaro sighs, knowing that other than Hokuto, Juri knows him best. And he would be lying if he said he didn’t have an ulterior motive. So, he tells Jiro the truth.

“Look, Jesse seems like a great guy and friend. But, even if he’s not crazy…”

“He’s not crazy?” Juri interrupts him.

“The practitioner said he wasn’t. Just said that he was lacking in some common knowledge.” Shintaro explained. “Anyway, the fact is that we still don’t know him. Maybe once we did, but we don’t now. So, unless there was something in it for me, I see no obligation to help him. But we do have something in it for us, so yeah. I have an ulterior motive.”

“Speaking of which…” Juri starts. “If your hypothesis is right, then… That means that the time/space user is…"


End file.
